PURPOSE: To determine the clinical profile, causes and response to corticosteroid therapy in patients admitted and treated for optic neuritis at a tertiary hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. METHODS: A retrospective case review of 117 patients with optic neuritis between January 2002 and December 2012. Demographic information, clinical presentation, course of illness, investigations performed and visual outcomes at discharge and at three month follow up were collected for analysis...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows three-dimensional (3D) imaging of the retina, and is commonly used for assessing pathological changes of fovea and macula in many diseases. Many neuroinflammatory conditions are known to cause modifications to the fovea shape. In this paper, we propose a method for parametric modeling of the foveal shape. Our method exploits invariant features of the macula from OCT data and applies a cubic Bézier polynomial along with a least square optimization to produce a best fit parametric model of the fovea...

RATIONALE: The conception that multiple sclerosis may be challenging to distinguish from demyelinating manifestations of Sjögren's syndrome (SS) was introduced more than 30 years ago. However, it is now recognized that the neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) may occur more frequently in SS as opposed to multiple sclerosis. Characteristic NMOSD features can include severe attacks of optic neuritis, myelitis which is frequently longitudinally-extensive (spanning at least three vertebral segments on magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]), and an association with anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies...

Premise This review summarises the pain syndromes that overlap between headache and facial pain and overlap between pain and cranial nerve lesion. Problem These syndromes share two features in common. First, they show both cranial nerve impairment (e.g. palsy, autonomic dysfunction) and pain; second, they have inflammatory (and/or small vessel) processes as the underlying mechanism. A typical representative of these syndromes is recurrent painful ophthalmoplegic neuropathy, which was previously called ophthalmoplegic migraine and was regarded as a migraine subtype...

We aim to evaluate the clinical relevance of MOG-ab in a cohort of Chinese Han adults with CNS inflammatory demyelinating diseases (IDDs). MOG-ab and AQP4-ab were examined through a fixed cell based indirect immune-fluorescence assay in 86 patients with CNS-IDDs. MOG-ab was positive in 12 patients, while AQP4-ab was positive in 31 patients; none double positives. Optic neuritis (ON) was the most frequent symptom at onset (75.0%) or during the whole disease course (83.3%) of MOG-ab associated IDDs (MOG-IDDs); 79...

Here we reported two patients who presented with panuveitis and were transferred from ophthalmologists to rheumatologists, for both the patients had oral and genital ulcers. They were misdiagnosed with Behcet's disease at first glance. Two young males presented with acute uveitis with history of recurrent oral and genital ulcers. They initially presented with symptoms and signs resembling Behcet's disease and were treated with systemic steroids with suboptimal responses. Routine laboratory test revealed syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), previously known as Devic's syndrome, are a group of inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by severe, immune-mediated demyelination and axonal damage, predominantly targeting optic nerves and the spinal cord typically associated with a disease-specific serum NMO-IgG antibody that selectively binds aquaporin-4 (AQP4). The classic and best-defined features of NMOSD include acute attacks of bilateral or rapidly sequential optic neuritis (leading to visual loss) or transverse myelitis (often causing limb weakness and bladder dysfunction) or both with a typically relapsing course...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system that involves inflammation and demyelination at multiple sites and causes a wide variety of clinical presentations with variable neurological deficits. The visual pathways are frequently involved with either visual or motor dysfunction. Optic neuritis (ON) is one the most common and best characterized presentations of the disease, but there are many other manifestations depending on the site of the lesion. Eyes that have never had ON show slow progressive loss of axons and retinal ganglion cells...

Although optic neuritis is commonly associated with multiple sclerosis, patients with atypical optic neuritis require further investigations to exclude other associated conditions. We report a woman presenting with cough, fatigue, atypical optic neuritis with chiasmitis. She responded partially to corticosteroids and we subsequently found she had a ground-glass lung nodule. Follow-up CT scan of thorax at 12 months showed new parenchymal lung lesions that suggested schistosomiasis. Further questioning by a respiratory physician identified, in retrospect, a previous exposure history; serological testing confirmed schistosoma infection...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that causes attacks of optic neuritis and transverse myelitis. The discovery of a specific serum marker for NMO-IgG antibody [aquaporin 4 antibody/AQP4 Ab] has revolutionised the treatment of demyelinating diseases. Severe vision loss can be seen in optic neuritis (ON) associated with both multiple sclerosis (MS) and NMO. Identifying this antibody in optic neuritis patients can help us to establish the likelihood of these patients developing NMO (Jarius et al...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this review is to highlight the clinical presentation of a variety of inflammatory optic neuropathies through a case-based format. While emphasis will be placed on optic neuritis, which represents the most common acquired inflammatory optic nerve injury, the cardinal clinical features of other demyelinating forms of optic neuropathy and potential mimics for typical optic neuritis will be discussed. RECENT FINDINGS: Novel developments in the diagnostic evaluation, clinical associations, and treatment options for several inflammatory optic neuropathies will be described...

Multiple sclerosis (MS), is a chronic disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by loss of motor and sensory function, that results from immune-mediated inflammation, demyelination and subsequent axonal damage. MS is one of the most common causes of neurological disability in young adults. Several variants of MS (and CNS demyelinating syndromes in general) have been nowadays defined in an effort to increase the diagnostic accuracy, to identify the unique immunopathogenic profile and to tailor treatment in each individual patient...

Angiostrongyliasis, caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection, is a food-borne parasitic disease. Its larvae evoke eosinophilic inflammation in the central nervous system, but can also cause pathological changes in the eyes. Among ocular angiostrongyliasis cases, the incidence of optic neuritis is low and only few sporadic reports exist. Some patients with optic neuritis developed obvious hypopsia or even vision loss, which would seriously influence the quality of life of patients. Prompt treatment of optic neuritis caused by A...